The present invention relates generally to fluorescent lamps, and more particularly to ultraviolet fluorescent lamps providing a higher intensity of ultraviolet radiation adjacent one end.
Tanning salons are becoming very popular, and tanning lamps are also purchased for home and club use. Many devices have been developed to make tanning with the use of artificial illumination sources more enjoyable and efficient. Generally, tanning salons use a booth, chamber, or bed, in or on which a person is placed for exposure to ultraviolet tanning radiation from a number of lamps. Generally, the tanning bed or chamber has a multiplicity of fluorescent lamps that extend longitudinally along the length of the individual and disposed in a parallel array of a width which will uniformly expose the full width of the body. Typically, these lamps are approximately six feet long, or the height of an individual.
Heretofore, these ultraviolet tanning fluorescent lamps have been uniformly coated with a fluorescent coating to provide a uniform radiation intensity over the length, and as many as thirty-six lamps may be used in a single bed or chamber.
It has been recognized that, in most individuals, the face may require a greater amount of ultraviolet radiation than the body in order to obtain the desired uniform tanning effect because of higher levels of melanin in the skin due to more exposure to the sun. To remedy this, some tanning beds or chambers also use metal halide lamps in the area of the head to provide increased radiation to the facial area. Still others interpose relatively short lamps between the longer lamps to provide the desired additional intensity of radiation in the facial area. In this way, the overall duration of time spent in the tanning bed or chamber is held constant while the ultraviolet radiation is increased in intensity in the facial area of the individual to provide the desired uniform tanning over the entire body. Although these composite tanning beds or chambers provide the desired uniform tanning effect, they are more complicated to fabricate and maintain, and they are relatively expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel ultraviolet lamp that has a portion adjacent one end thereof providing ultraviolet rays of higher intensity than over the remainder of the lamp.
It is also an object to provide such a lamp which may be fabricated relatively easily and economically, and which will exhibit a relatively long life.
Another object is to provide a tanning bed or chamber which is of relatively simple construction using only these novel lamps so that it can be easily and inexpensively manufactured and maintained, while providing the desired tanning effect by generating increased radiation intensity over the facial area of the individual.